Home... home on The Grange
RENEGADE Nell is the new Sally Wainwright drama on our TV screens but, unusually for this multi-awardwinning writer, it’s based down south instead of Yorkshire. Wainwright has been credited with putting Halifax back on the map with her television dramas Gentleman Jack and Last Tango In Halifax, and she describes the town as magical thanks to its rich history and impressive buildings.
The most famous is Piece Hall, an 18th century cloth hall and courtyard that’s now home to cultural events, exhibitions, shops, bars and restaurants.
This Grade I listed site was restored from 2014 to 2017 at a cost of £19million and is one of 254 listed buildings in theWest Yorkshire town, many of them connected to the cloth trade.
Warley Town, a village two miles from Halifax, has another 32 listed buildings and among them is The Grange, a 17th century yeoman clothier’s house, which is for sale with a detached stone-built coach house.
In the 1960s it was the home of Phyllis Bentley, who wrote the Oldroyd family saga serialised by Granada Television in 1967, starring John Thaw and James Bolam.
Another former resident was Patrick Brontë, the Irish-born father of writers Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, who went on to become rector at Haworth, 12 miles away.
The Grange dates from around 1630 and has original features such as mullion windows, a stone fireplace in the dining room and exposed beams in the lounge and elsewhere.
It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a lounge, dining room and study, modern kitchen with handmade cabinets and five-oven Aga, a laundry room and wine store under the stairs.
The Grange is for sale at £1.25million (01422 380100; charnockbates.co.uk) including The Coach House, converted by the current owners to accommodate extended family, with a lift to the first-floor bedrooms.
This has a kitchen and sitting room downstairs, with a separate home office, while upstairs there’s a bedroom with fitted wardrobes and another double bedroom currently used as a lounge, plus a large shower room and laundry.
A cobbled courtyard has room for two or three cars, with more parking near The Coach House, and the grounds include a southfacing lawn with a terrace. There’s also a stone and timber greenhouse.
BEHIND The Grange is the Church of St John the Evangelist, built long after Patrick Brontë had left the house but he many have known the farm house that became a pub known as The Horns and is now a popular gastro pub called Maypole Inn.
It’s opposite the former site ofWarley’s maypole, the focus of Mayday celebrations until around 1888.
Warley’s key buildings have changed little in the past 100 years but it’s not just a handsome old village.
With trains from Halifax and Sowerby Bridge, less than two miles away, plus access to the M62, it’s well placed for commuting to Leeds and Manchester.
It’s also close to moorland walks in the South Pennines, something the Brontë sisters famously enjoyed.